To manage its operations, an enterprise can typically include multiple business applications that are integrated into one platform, such as, for example, an SAP NetWeaver® application-integration platform available from SAP AG, of Walldorf, Germany. The business applications are typically configured to perform one or more business processes and may be distributed across various process components. Examples of business processes include customer relationship management processes, product lifecycle management processes, supply chain management processes, and manufacturing processes. The process components may be implemented with different technology stacks and supplied from different vendors. Moreover, one or more of the process components may implement a business process that involves a computing system of another enterprise.
Errors that are generated during the execution of business processes may depend on a combination of applications and business processes being executed. Although most process components are equipped with their own error-handling mechanisms, as the modularity and complexity of the architecture to which they belong increases, error handling performed by individual process components becomes increasingly difficult and more error-prone. This is due, in part, because process information is often not confined to any one process component but rather distributed across various process components. Thus, the process knowledge at any one component is incomplete.
Inaccurate error handling by one or more process components may, for example, fail to detect errors which could then propagate to other components within the architecture. A mischaracterization of the severity of a detected error may also occur resulting in a less optimal or inappropriate course of action to be taken. For example, if an error-handling mechanism characterizes an error as being more severe that it actually is, the mechanism may cause processes to be unnecessarily terminated.
As process components are added to or removed from an architecture, the exception handling mechanisms for some or all of the process components may need to be modified. This can be a daunting task if the architecture includes many process components.